


strut and fret

by Isis



Category: Slings and Arrows
Genre: M/M, Yuletide, challenge:Yuletide 2006
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-25
Updated: 2006-12-25
Packaged: 2017-11-20 22:06:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/590154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isis/pseuds/Isis





	strut and fret

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mazily](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mazily/gifts).



 

 

Darren Nichols hates Geoffrey Tennant.

Well, he wants to fuck him, which is more or less the same thing. Geoffrey is perfectly cordial to him, when they work together in class or see each other on campus, but deep down Darren suspects Geoffrey gnashes his teeth and thinks evil thoughts about him.

Or perhaps he only hopes that he does. Because the alternative is that Geoffrey doesn't think about Darren at all, and wouldn't _that_ be horrid?

Darren thinks about Geoffrey a lot. He thinks that he's talented (but not as talented as everybody _says_ he is, because really, a pretty face and you're halfway there) and that he's handsome (which is obvious enough to go without saying) and that he's wasting himself on a string of silly, petty, pretty, completely ridiculous girlfriends (who generally don't last a month with him, which is small consolation to Darren).

Mostly, Darren thinks about the upcoming auditions for the University production of _The Birthday Party_ , which (when he finds and reads a copy of the play) much to his surprise is not a banal, frothy piece of shit, but an elegant absurdist masterpiece by that elegant master of absurdity, Harold Pinter.

The thing is, does he want to be Stanley, the character around which everything revolves, the centerpiece? Or does he want Geoffrey to be Stanley; Darren can be Goldberg or McCann (although he suspects he'll be cast as Goldberg. He looks sufficiently Jewish, although perhaps the point of an absurdist play is to have a patently non-Jewish-looking actor play Goldberg, which after all may not be his real name. Perhaps Dean Ellis, the only black student in the department, will get the role). The chance to abuse Geoffrey, to play cruel games, to taunt him - wouldn't _that_ be delightful?

But Stanley is the star. And Geoffrey is the star. Geoffrey is always the star, damn him.

Professor Lancaster gives no clue during the auditions, giving each person the same polite thanks after every monologue. Geoffrey was brilliant, Darren reluctantly admits. Darren had carefully crafted his gestures, practiced his lines, but Geoffrey's understated delivery gave Stanley a quiet strength that Darren envied.

In the end, it's moot. Stanley's given to some third-year student Darren only vaguely knows, Geoffrey lands the part of Goldberg, and Darren's name is nowhere on the list posted in the corridor outside Lancaster's office.

"Congratulations," Darren says to Geoffrey. He's an actor, he can proffer the expected inanities without breaking his mask.

"Thanks. Sorry you didn't get in," says Geoffrey. "Maybe next time, eh?"

"I wasn't really interested." Geoffrey raises an eyebrow, and Darren shrugs. "I'd rather direct."

"Sure," says Geoffrey easily, and then Tina comes up behind them, and squeals when she sees she's to play Lulu, and Geoffrey congratulates her, and Darren's forgotten.

Darren Nichols _really_ hates Geoffrey Tennant.

 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Poor Player (the strut and fret remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4229841) by [NEStar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NEStar/pseuds/NEStar)




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